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| Lake Mead from Red Mountain Peak |
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| Spring Mountains and the Las Vegas Strip |
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| Monkeying around at the start of the Zip Line |
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| Starting up the Trail |
Red & Black is an oldie but goodie. Yet, three of our great hikers today had never been introduced to it. Better late than never! We parked at the River Mountains Trailhead located off of Boulder City Parkway just up the hill from St. Jude Ranch for Children. We hiked up on the left side of the cement culvert and turned left to follow the marked trail through the desert. The trail swings out to the left then returns right, through a small canyon wash and ends up at a junction where we turned to the left. Here, we began hiking up next to the shallow wash that emanates from the division between Red and Black Mountains. Our trail eventually began climbing some fun switchbacks up the left embankment.
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| Red and Yellow Hills |
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| View over to Lake Mead |
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| Red Mountain, Saddle and Black Mountain Edge |
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| Half Moon Setting |
"We always see bighorns on this hike!" Nope, not today. It was very windy and, perhaps, they were hiding out from the harsh breeze. Anyway, we kept looking and climbing in and out of the wind as shelter was provided. Since three of our hikers were newbies, I enjoyed giving the tour. Dog Rock was first on the agenda. Next, the little cave. Next, the saddle. The full tour would not be complete without the climb up to the left onto Red Mountain Peak so up, we went. There were no bikers or zip liners anywhere to be seen at this point. The wind was terrible up on the peak but we managed a group photo anyway. After a short break, we headed down and back to the saddle.
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| Climbing the Switchbacks |
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| View down to Boulder City from Switchbacks |
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| Start of the Zip Line below Red Mountain Peak |
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| Seven Hikers on Red Mountain Peak |
Next, we started up the Black Mountain Trail. The views of the snow-capped Spring Mountains across the Las Vegas valley were crystal clear! All this wind is good for something! As we hiked, I pointed out River Mountain Peak, the highest point in the River Mountains Range. (That may be next on the agenda.) I pointed out the caldera ... that really isn't a real caldera and more like a flow field. We zigzagged up the trail ... looking for the non-existent bighorns ... and arrived at the overlook area where signage explained about some of the geology at which we were looking in the distance. I showed the newbies how to start along the ridge to get to the actual Black Mountain Peak. (That may be next also!)
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| Red Mountain Peak Views |
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| River Mountain - River Mountains highest Peak |
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| Climbing up to Black Mountain Overlook Peak |
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| Dog Rock, Chuckwalla, Pineapple Cactus Bloom, Bikers |
Views of Lake Mead, Fortification Hill, Red Mountain, Spring Mountains and Las Vegas were fabulous from the overlook. We took a leisurely break and started back down. It wasn't until a few minutes later that we began passing other hikers on this Saturday. An older couple (ahem, like us), a runner, a power walker ... and, surprise, Richard N. So nice to see him again! We stopped to watch bikers descend from Red Mountain.
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| Lake Mead from Black Mountain Trail |
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| Red Mountain from Black Mountain Trail |
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| Seven Hikers on Black Mountain Overlook Peak |
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| Watching the Bikers at the Saddle |
We stopped to talk to Richard for a couple of minutes. Onward and downward. We finished our hike via the culvert. On the way, we saw our first chuckwalla of the season. He was small, maybe a juvenile. I led a few hikers down by the culvert and Jerry led the other half down the middle of the culvert. Great day! Fun hikers!
Stats: 6.5 miles; 1550' gain; 3.75 hours
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| Switchbacking Down |
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| River Mountains Trail |
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| Culvert Walk |
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